Gift Wrapping
Pretty wrapping on a present makes even simple tokens extra special. I love wrapping gifts, in fact if J ever has anything to be wrapped I always beg to do it. Visual presentation is key, whether it be nicely plated food, pretty lingerie, or a well dressed gift. It adds a layer of suspense. The Great Lakes paper pictured above is hand printed by local print shop Kid Icarus. The Chanel paper below is from a group gift I received for my birthday years ago. Yes I am one of those people who saves and reuses paper and ribbon. I’ve had this paper tucked away and finally used it to wrap a present to J, a pair of J Crew boxers printed with gun dogs. But you really don’t need fancy gift wrap, simple brown Kraft paper tied with twine or coloured yarn is equally charming.
A la Mode
A scoop of ice cream topping a slice of pie may be excessive, but is totally delicious. It’s quite literally the icing on the cake. My current preferred à la mode flavour is vanilla, although I’m not usually a vanilla fan at all. My usual motto regarding vanilla is: why bother? I’ve just recently discovered Haagen Dazs vanilla bean flavour, which is much nicer than just regular vanilla. The ice cream is flecked with the telltale dark specks of real vanilla beans.
Bunnyware
I have a weakness for Japanese bunnyware. Our entire collection of mixed pieces has been purchased bit by bit over the years from Sanko, a wonderful Japanese grocery store on Queen Street West. When J and I were getting married we got caught up in the idea that we should follow ritual and choose a china pattern that would be our special grown up set. We went to William Ashley and The Bay to select our first set of fine bone china, but realized we didn’t really like any of it, except maybe the odd plain white set. None of the designs tugged at my heart and made me smile the way bunnyware does. We also felt that fine bone china didn’t quite fit into our lifestyle. We don’t have a proper dining table and our parties involve eating off of laps in our living room. Plus I kept thinking for the cost fine bone china, how much bunnyware that I really loved we could get instead. Another great aspect of our bunnyware is that we’re not precious about it. We use it every single day for everything from food prep to granola to dinner to ice cream.
